🎙53. There are People who Crave What You Dream of Building: Why Your Work Matters

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Episode Published on September 21, 2023

Transcript:

Intro —

Welcome back to the Spiritual 9-5 Podcast, hosted by myself Marie Groover – founder of The Corporate Psychic & Essential Teams.

Today’s episode is about why your work matters – why your journey matters, and how you make the shift from the hero of your own story, to the guide in the story of others. It’s about the big picture impact of what you are here to do & it’s about shifting from self-centered to other-centered – not in a people pleasing way, but in a the true nature of service.

If this episode or if this work resonates, please share it with just one person – text them the link to listen. Ask about them about it later. This might be so small for you, but it’s lifechanging for me.

🔮

Today we are going to talk about main character energy – when to be in it, and when to step out of it. Because, I think that we get stuck in main character vibes, and rather than expanding us, it shrinks us and makes us smaller than we are meant to be.

The point of the episode is that your work matters and that if you want to make the biggest impact, if you want to be constantly expanding as person, if you want to bring forward your most meaningful work into the world – then you are going to have to relinquish your main character vibes from time to time, and it’s a good thing.

Because when we get deep enough into our work, we realize, truly, that it is so much bigger than ourselves. And when it becomes a true service to the world, not a self-gratifying effort or experience, but truly a service, then we get to experience a whole new level of joy, fulfillment, and momentum in what we do.

This is for you if you are an entrepreneur (or want to be one), but this is also for you if you are neck-deep in excel in a meh job that pays the bills, if you are leading an organization, or PMing the the features of a product. Whatever you do, it all applies. So, stick with me.

You’ve heard of the hero’s journey, right?

The hero’s journey is interwoven into all of our favorite stories and movies and experiences and marketing. And we love it.

We love it because it’s a journey that we relate to on an individual level. I’m going to give a quick summary of the hero’s journey and an example of where in it I want to focus.

There is a character who is just an ordinary character. They have a problem or a desire & they are called into action or adventure. Typically they refuse the initial call, but eventually they follow it and by doing so they become the main character. In every great hero’s journey, the main character meets a guide. The guide calls them into action, gives them a plan or a set of directions (usually vague but sometimes specific & most often life-changing). They experience some trials and hardships. And then they come out on top – they solve their problem, they win their desire, they achieve what they set out to, they save the day.

AND in doing so, they return from where they started.

And if there is a sequel, they often become the guide. They shift from main character, to A main character, and they shift from self-centeredness to other-centeredness. They share the knowledge and wisdom gained.

A good example of this is the original movie The Karate Kid and the Netflix series Kobra Kai. In the new series we have the Karate Kid turned master & guide, and we see somewhat of a legacy being built. Daniel Lurusso AND Johnny Lawrence, they aren’t fighting for themselves anymore, they are serving others with a mission and a purpose and in doing so, creating a movement, a following, a vibe that many people naturally gravitate towards and support – because their work, karate, is more than just karate.

This is what I want to talk about today. How the return of the hero in the hero’s journey - AKA you, in your big leap or transformational life experiences, is the threshold to your movement and your work becoming the gateway to a movement, to something greater, to truly being of service to others.

And when it comes to the hero’s journey –

I think we have become obsessed with the wrong phase in the journey – I think we have become obsessed with the story of individuation, with finding ourselves, with being ourselves, with liberation, with becoming and being the main character – and I think that we have gotten a bit lost in the metaphorical woods.

I have to use the woods as a metaphor because if you didn’t know - I recently rebuilt the website for the corporate psychic with a most amazing human, kening zhu. And it speaks to the one who feels the call. It’s still a work in progress, but I definitely invite you to peep it because the illustration by Kening is beautiful, and at the moment, the vibes are quiet poetic. I’ve been in a bit of poetry era of late, and it’s showing.

I’m actually going to read the intro to you, so that you understand the appeal of main character energy & so that you can follow my forest/deep woods metaphor for the entirety of the rest of the podcast episode. Because I already know I won’t be able to keep myself from referencing it.

This is the copy on the home page:

you are standing in a meadow at the edge of a tall, dense forest. something inside compels you to walk in.

you can feel the trees calling.

you’ve felt this before.

you may not know exactly what it is, or why.

you only know with certainty that you must answer.

the forest is dark. all of your senses come alive at the mere thought of wandering (and wondering) within.

The Unknown.

this is a place you must enter alone, without anyone you’ve ever known.

for they have never walked this forest.

and they have never been where you are being called to go.

I am the guide that takes you in, for this forest is the place that I call home.

I wrote this as a poem, initially to demonstrate the vibe or the feeling that I wanted to evoke in thecorppsychic’s website visitors. This is the feeling that often initiates a person from a normal life to an extraordinary one, the feeling that something’s gotta give, something’s gotta change, something is coming.

The feeling that we are made for more.

It is the call into a hero’s journey.

And, if you are a visitor of the website, embarking on a journey, I am the guide – The Corporate Psychic is the guide.

But how does one become a guide? Well, the key is in the return.

And the return is the point. It’s what we are missing in our obsession with being the hero or being the main character or going into the woods in the first place. So many of us feel the call to go into the deep woods, in part because we are called to the woods, but also in part because we are running away from where it is that we are coming from. And, that’s okay. Pretty par for the course in the hero’s journey if you ask me.

The woods have a lot to teach us. The journey itself has a lot to teach us. We have much wisdom to gain.

And when we set out on a journey, when we are called into the action – the point is to return with that wisdom. The point is to come back with a deeper sense and understanding for what we set out to do in the first place. New perspective. New solutions to our old problems.

As a culture somehow, I think we are missing this. The return.

The homecoming.

The part where the main character comes back, is recognized, re-integrates with their community & shares the knowledge, experience & wisdom gained.

So many of us become so very (and understandably) repulsed by society, culture, politics, the corporate world, family trauma, etc. that we set out to never come back. We want to sort of tap out of the game, we could say.

If you are a creative, you’ve felt this.

If you are offbeat, if you are different in any sort of way, you’ve felt this.

You’ve felt the call and either you’ve done something about it, or you dream of doing something about it.

For those of us who have done something about it – taken some sort of action to find ourselves, know ourselves, be ourselves, find our people, create with our gifts, we have moved from the world into the forest. We are IN the hero’s journey, we could say.

Many of us get stuck here. Once you are in the forest, by the way, you’ll see that the forest isn’t dark, but it’s bright and magical and people are kind, and we are seen, and it’s fun, and it’s kind of like when Wendy goes off to Peter Pan land. There is a feeling of never wanting to return.

I want to tell you a story that involves a bit of what happens when we get stuck.

I returned from the forest to start a new business - Essential Teams. Essential Teams was named based on a quote from the Dalai Lama – no one is special, but everyone is essential. And I believe that your most high performing, connected, high functioning, fulfilled and alive team will be the one where no one is special but everyone is essential. The same is true of your organization or business as a whole – no business unit is special, everyone is essential (marketing, sales, product, support, legal, admin – all essential). And the work of ET, that’s what I call essential teams because Microsoft taught me to love acronyms. So the work of ET is to deliver deep & transformation team building and people development experiences by bringing the tools that I’ve gained from my experience as a coach and giving them back to the corporate world, in a team or large group setting.

And so far it’s proven to be really powerful.

But I remember being nervous to step fully into and own this role. When I would talk about this work and this business, my coach actually advised me to tone it down. And it was spiritual friends, not my corporate ones, who said the same – to water the work down, that the corporate world wasn’t ready for this, or didn’t actually want what I was bringing.

My coaches and my spiritual friends kept referring (and they still do btw) to my business as a trojan horse for the corporate world.

But, it isn’t a trojan horse. It isn’t pretending to be something it isn’t in order to make sales or attract the clients that it seeks. The clients that I seek in ET are clients that value people, particularly the people that work for them and make them a lot of money.

If you are a client of Essential Teams, that is the threshold. That is the baseline. I am not interested in working with anyone that I have to trick or fool to hire me.

I’m not interested in selling what people want & giving them what they “need”. And I think that is actually an appeal for many individuals and businesses. Oh, you mean I have integrity in my work and what I sell?

YES.

And friends who see the work that I do, they see this stance and they are worried for me. But I say this –

What if there is actual appetite in the corporate world for a holistic approach to wellbeing, deepened connection, and people nourishment?

(there is).

What if it doesn't have to masquerade itself, but instead can be what it is in plain sight and people will pay for the services offered?

What if we don't have to sell what people want & then give them what they need?

(spoiler alert: the work doesn't have to masquerade itself & people do want to purchase its services & we can trust people to know what they need).

I was on a call with a prospective client a few weeks ago. She is a co-founder of a start-up turned corporation that has been in business for 10+ years now. Their team has gone from 3 to ~90+ people. And on this call, she said to me:

“We have the business structures and processes in place. But what we are missing and what we are looking for is the soul-work.”

The biggest smile came across my face.

She was speaking my language. I told her my personal story and about the work of Essential Teams. I told her about The Corporate Psychic & the entire journey that I've taken to arrive at this very place. I told her what we are about and why, and the kind of work that we bring to the world & why I think it matters.

She asked me for my most customized offer & if I would be willing to pitch it to her senior leadership team.

You see, there is appetite (hunger & starvation actually) for the exact work that you dream of bringing to the world.

If it doesn't exist yet, perhaps it's your responsibility to create it. Perhaps you are the one who was meant to build it.

Perhaps if you create it, people will get it. Because they need it too.

Perhaps, if it doesn’t exist & you do create it, it doesn’t have to be a trojan horse. Perhaps you can go back to where you set out from with all the juicy stories of your experience and your work and your challenges and what you have learned, and how it has made you wiser, and perhaps people are eager to listen – perhaps they are even eager to pay you.

When you set out on your hero(ine)'s journey – when you answer the call and you dare to find out who you are, when you dare to explore your gifts and talents, and when you dare to start living and creating from your personal truth – don’t get lost in the forest.

Remember that there is an entire world and universe around you who can use your gifts and will pay you boatloads of money for them. Because you’ve been in the forest and they haven’t yet.

And that’s meaningful.

Don't fool yourself into believing that only the people of the metaphorical forest will understand you & value what you have to offer. How could they? They are all trying to offer it too, to you and to all the other people in the forest.

Don't get caught in the MLM-ification of spirituality or coaching or service-based businesses that already exist, or whatever culture it is that you are currently swimming in. Look around you. You have so much more to give than what has already been created.

You don’t have to be a manifestation coach or a business consultant or a marketing guru or a yoga teacher or insert any job title that already exists. You don’t have to be the same flavor or a slightly different flavor as all of the other people of the forest. That’s so unimaginative and unoriginal. Give yourself more credit. And give the people around you who are looking for something new and fresh, more credit.

And I’m not saying don’t be a manifestation coach or a yoga teacher. We need these skills. But what I am saying is BE YOU, exactly as you are, with exactly what you have to give, especially if it doesn’t exist yet, and be where you are needed most.

Fuck the messaging, fuck all the reasons why you shouldn’t, why no one will get it. Show up anyways. And the messaging will come. It will make sense. Everything will clear itself up. You’ll find your people, who are closer than you think they are, and it will work out. Because your work matters and you are the only one who can bring it to the world in the way the way that you are the only you on this planet. No one can do your work for you, in the way that you are meant to.

The ones who will value you the most are the ones who crave what it is that you have experienced because they haven’t. They want what you can offer because they don’t have it.

Get out of the dms of all of the people on instagram or linkedin who have one time liked something that you have posted because they are in the forest with you. Go someplace new. Someplace that scares you. Return to where you came from anew.

Maybe you are like me and that community for you is corporate, maybe it's your Christian Mom's Group, or your medical community, or your construction management company, or your fellow mountain biking enthusiasts, or maybe it’s the people you surf with every single day.

The space where you’ve felt the most unique & alone, where you've hidden parts of yourself, where maybe you even set out to leave behind.. that is the space where you have the most to give.

That is the space that is worth going back to – and potentially is the point in you setting off on your own in the first place.

But going back there, that requires you to be seen in your truth, in your work, in your wisdom, in your journey. That requires you to step into a whole new form of leadership, compassion, grace, and guidance.

Why do you think it took me so long to launch Essential Teams after leaving Microsoft? For anyone who doesn’t know how long it’s taken me – ET has been an idea since 2019. I got serious about launching it in early 2023. That’s 4 years. And by got serious, I mean I hired a coach specifically to hold me accountable to it and help me develop my messaging around it.

And what I learned from that experience is that the best way to develop your messaging is to just talk to potential customers and people who are in the space that you want to be in – a lot. It’s practicing pitching, positioning, clearing up where there are objections based on misunderstanding. It’s practice. And the same thing is true for launching anything – it’s just showing up with it, totally unpolished, raw and in its essence and continuing to do so until it is polished.

It is THE RETURN. It is stepping into the role of guide before you are guide, because just come back from a journey and now you need to tell people about it.

And now you need to tell people about it for their sake, not for your own.

Essential Teams has been an idea that I’ve held and experimented with for years.

Why?

Because it scared the shit out of me to be taken seriously in work that I thought mattered. And the work of Essential Teams freaking matters. It’s important to me, it’s important for the workforce. It’s important for corporate, and it just so happens that I am THE ONE to bring it to life. I am made for this work.

I was on a prospective client turned client call last week and this amazing human said to me “I can tell that you are genuinely passionate about this work and that you aren’t here just to sell me. I can see it on your face and in your expressions and through the way that you are talking.”

And what a compliment, but also she was right. I fucking live for Essential Teams. I am so passionate about this work because the people in the corporate space are so undernourished and hungry for actual expansion and to be seen and valued and recognized for who they are, which is more than what they can produce.

And that’s what the work of Essential Teams does. And what do you think is more transformational? Strengthsfinders? Or a consultant, a guide, who actually sees who you are and what you have to bring and CARES?

When I did strengthsfinders btw, I learned that I was in the wrong job. I literally applied for a new job right after getting my results because I was like – why I am a feature PM? I have so much more to give.

AND YOU HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO GIVE. I’m not saying quit your job. Absolutely not. I’m saying, find out who the fuck you are and don’t get lost there. Don’t get stuck there. Don’t stay in the forest forever.

I could have stayed in the forest and lost touch completely with what is possible on the outside. I could be one of those people who are like “oh its a trojan horse.” when in reality those people are so out of touch with what corporate actually is, or what corporate actually wants.

Don’t lose touch with your community and shrink yourself into believing that what you have to have to give is irrelevant.

I could have stayed in the forest, or I could go where I can make the biggest difference – back from I came from – the Corporate World. Arguably the place in need of people nourishment, purpose, meaning, and core values the most.

The place that inspired my own first calling into the forest.

Going back is something that not everyone has the courage or the resiliency to master. Yet it is necessary to get the job done, to complete the hero’s journey.

It is the final (and arguably the most important) phase, the reason the hero sets out to begin with. And it’s the catalyst for producing the sequel.

If you are here to spread light or consciousness on the planet, but you are only spreading light in places where it's already lit the f*ck up:

return
with all of you
with all that you've learned
& all that you are, return

because wherever you are in your hero's journey – you are just getting started.

And your work matters.

I am creating a new program right now, it’s called Visibility, and it’s all about honing and practicing the art of allowing ourselves to be seen in our work, in our gifts, in our desires, so that we can become a magnet for what we are meant to do. Because when we allow ourselves to be seen, we are seen, and appreciated and accepted and sought after, and also paid for what we want to be paid for, for what we do the best, for the work that lights our hearts up.

If you’ve felt the call and you want to be seen in your gifts, in who you truly are, in who you desire to be, in the work that you desire to do – the link for the waitlist in the shownotes.

This will be the most economical program ever offered through TCP, so if money is something that has kept you from working with me, join the waitlist. If you want to get promoted this year, join the waitlist. If you want to start your own business this year, join the waitlist. If you want to make more friends or find your people, join the waitlist. If you want to have a personalized coach in your backpocket for 2024, join the waitlist. If you want to experience the magic of my work, join the waitlist.

If you want to go back to corporate with your healing gifts, join the waitlist.

TCP - The Corporate Psychic is shifting a bit come 2024 to accommodate the work I am doing in Essential Teams. Visibility will be the only way that you can work with me, outside of a 1-1 container.

If you want a Find Your Purpose session, reach ASAP or join the waitlist for visibility. If you’ve ever considered booking a tarot or akashic records reading, join the waitlist for visibility, or book it right now. If you are interested in intuitive honing and development, join the waitlist for visibility.

Visibility is about more than just being seen. It’s about seeing others truly. It’s about being in our work. And it’s going to be blend of everything from type-A corporate wisdom to spiritual guidance to life experience to motivational speeches in your back pocket, all to keep you in your own work – which is the thing that is going to propel you where you are going.

You don’t need to hire a $20,000+ coach for accountability on your life work or business, you can just join the waitlist for visibility. If you like the podcast, you’ll like the program.

Join the waitlist in the shownotes.

Now that I have beat that to the ground:

Let me give a quick synopsis.

We talked about the hero’s journey & the call into the metaphorical woods.

We talked about how people can get stuck there, and we talked about the return – why it is crucial to show up in the world in the work that you know you are meant for, because your work matters.

And this is important because it takes us from being self-centered and self-servicing, even in our work and business, to being of true service to ourselves and to the world and this is the catalyst for our sequel. Being in our work, being in our service, living our service – this is where the juice is. This is the threshold to all of your dreams coming true.

Heavy claims, but true ones.

So join the waitlist for visibility and be in your work, because your work matters. People crave what you dream of building and only you can build it.

___

Outro

Please share this episode with one human who you think would enjoy it, or to many humans. Text or dm them the link directly and follow up with them. It takes minimal effort on your part, but it really makes a difference here for the podcast, for The Corporate Psychic, and even for Essential Teams.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Spiritual 9-5 Podcast. We talked about why your work matters, how to shift from you-centeredness to other-centeredness and how to offer something where it matters most – and really why we set out on any journey’s to begin with.

Don’t forget to rate the show and subscribe.

Until next time..